After submitting and receiving feedback for Shower Thoughts v1 (Shower Thoughts in Self-Isolation: A Sonic Guided Journey) at the 21st Century Music Symposium, I was inspired to keep working with this idea and make changes based on the comments received. Not only that, but my opinions on the piece changed and I wanted to try something more experimental.
To understand the Shower Thoughts v1 project, please visit my blog: https://coreopulencemusic.com/2020/04/23/shower-thoughts-in-self-isolation-a-sonic-guided-journey/
For Shower Thoughts v2, I decided to make the following changes:
- Reduce the text on screen / remove text prompts
- Overlay more sounds on top of one another
- Make the piece longer
- Add some sound effects to distort some of the sound, very minimal
One reviewer of my piece pointed out that the text was distracting, almost as if I were promoting thoughts rather than letting the listener come to their own conclusion. I had to agree, my main goal was to see where the lister goes with the piece. The text prompt would take away from that experience or journey. Additionally, the sound associations are open for interpretation. If I prompted the listener to think there was a spoon stirring tea through text, then the authenticity of the listener’s response would be impacted. I decided for Shower Thoughts v2 to remove the text prompts for this to be truer to an audio guide.
In Shower Thoughts v1, I never had more than 2 recordings playing at the same time. Though I did this to create a linear path through the music, I feel that thoughts we have are not always linear. For Shower Thoughts v2 I decided to overlay more recordings on top of one another, closer together, to bring the feel of thoughts in a frenzy of the mind.
Making the piece longer was also something I felt was necessary. I wanted the piece to feel as if the lister was in the shower having their own thoughts. I went and extended the piece from 2 minutes to 12 minutes to give this more of a realistic feel of taking a shower.
Finally, I played around with some sound effects on some of the recordings. Though it is not overly noticeable in the piece, I wanted to see how the slight various of gains, fades, and other effects would contribute to the chaos of the mind. Afterall, thoughts jump in and out without warning, some are louder than others, and so the recordings were meant to reflect this.
Overall, creating this piece was rewarding and I plan on coming back to it again to see what other edits can be made. Please take a moment to listen to Shower Thoughts v2 and feel free to leave your feedback:
Core Opulence Music 